I promise this will be the only long post, but I felt you needed to know where I was coming form, so bear with me for a bit.
I grew up in a not-so-typical home, my parents were missionaries to Mexico and to South America, and so an American kid living in a foreign country isn't something you see every day. The other thing that is unfortunately not-so-typical today is the fact that I was raised in a Christian home by both parents (they're having their 50th wedding anniversary next summer how awesome is that!). I was saved at a young age in a hotel room with my parents somewhere in Mexico. I still remember the feeling I had leading up to that night. I had this heavy weight on my chest and knew something in my spirit wasn't right. I think those were the words I used when I told my dad I knew I needed Jesus. I prayed a simple prayer inviting Him into my life, to have a relationship with Him and become His follower. I was baptized at Christ for the Nations in Dallas soon after. We used to go there every summer for their annual seminars. I felt God's calling on my life that summer, but as a kid, I don't think it's possible to really understand what that means, and really, it took God whacking me over the head with a two-by-four for me to finally sort of understand!
Athletics have been a big part of my life and as a kid, raced BMX bikes, and was actually pretty good at it. I've got an old box full of old gold colored plastic trophies to prove it if you ever want to come over and check them out! I started getting too big for the little bikes, so I moved on to football. There was also a "cool factor" that played into me not riding my bike any more I'm sure! I went to Rockwall High School from the middle of my 9th grade year to the beginning of my senior year where I decided to transfer to a private school called Lexington Academy. I transferred for a couple of reasons, the head football coach at Lexington was really persuasive, and I had several church friends that went there. Not getting to play the position I wanted to play @ Rockwall also played a factor in my decision. The reason that I never factored was God's plan for my life. Playing football at Lexington brought me to Hardin-Simmons University, where I would soon meet Janna.
Janna and I have now been married for 15 years and have really been the best years of my life. Janna is the perfect wife. We tell people that we never fight, and no one believes us, but it's true, we've never had a knock down, drag out fight, and really have never even raised our voices at each other maliciously. We're both really laid back and that may have something to do with it. I don't know. I do know that we have placed God at the center of our marriage and it shows. Our kids are great, I couldn't ask for better ones! Dane is 10, and Claire is 7. They are everything we imagined having kids would be like, and then some!
Going to Hardin-Simmons (HSU) I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew I liked "helping people". It sounds like a really cheesy interview answer I know, but I did. I got a packet in the mail one day talking about Chiropractic and how it was the greatest healthcare profession and how chiropractors were in the top 5% of income earners etc... I was sold! I applied and got in in January of 1997. I was on my way to becoming a great Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C. for short) I graduated in 2000 and opened a practice in Mansfield TX, in an old house in the old downtown area. Opening a new business is TOUGH! Let alone a chiropractic business. People usually go to see a chiropractor only if they are really hurting and/or if they've been everywhere else and you're their last resort. If you can help them, they become great patients! As with any business starting out, I struggled. I partnered with another chiropractor across town after two years of being on my own, and still struggled. I questioned why God would have gotten me thru all these years of school and not make me successful, but in the back of my mind I still knew that God had a plan for me. After a bad week at the office, I was offered a sales job by a friend of mine from church and decided it was the right move for me and the fam.
Mineral Wells is a great town, but I still have friends ask "why Mineral Wells?" From the first time my boss at the time talked about moving the company to the MDub, Janna and I felt very at peace. We made several trips out here looking at houses and just dreaming. Small town life has been something we always liked the idea of, and so it wasn't a stretch for us to know that we'd fit in here.
We looked at the church scene here after we moved, and decided on First Baptist Church. We came from a great church in Arlington, and there wasn't really anything like it here in town, but in a small town you are pretty limited on church choices, let alone styles of worship. We became heavily involved at church, just like we were at our old church, but there was something missing, or maybe not missing, but there was a lack of abundance of young(er) adults. Finally one day the question was asked, "what do we need to do to reach younger adults?" I, along with a few others, proposed a new service, unlike anything that was familiar to the typical traditional Baptist church. It was something I saw at a church in Abilene that really caught my attention. It was a church service that met in their gym. It had everything that would appeal to young adults, modern music, conversational messages, cool lights and FOOD! We called it "The Gathering". I felt it was the reason God brought us to Mineral Wells. The convoluted story of how we got here now all of the sudden made sense. The ministry we were doing finally made me feel like my life had purpose. I felt it was the calling God had placed in my heart so many years ago. We felt we were right where God wanted us to be. We had battled very hard to get this service going and on its feet, and to keep it going as well. It was a constant struggle, and for a while, it didn't matter. The ministry we were doing was worth it, but it seemed like we were always one business meeting away from being shut down. It was hard for some people to accept this new ministry, and there was always a constant noise in the background about it. So, after much prayer and seeking God's face, this past June, we decided to leave. The funny thing about being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and listening to what God wants you to do, is that it sometimes makes no sense to the people around you. Sure enough, it didn't! We decided that we weren't trying to please people, we wanted to please God, and we were willing to follow Him wherever He leads us, no matter what.
I began to pray a simple prayer a few months before we decided to leave FBC and all it said was "Lord, present an opportunity for us to serve and minister to someone somewhere". We had seen the amount of hurting people that came to The Gathering and knew we wanted to be part of something like that. We began visiting some other churches in the area and also in Weatherford, and just didn't feel like any of the places we went were where God wanted us to be. Still this simple prayer kept running through my head, "Lord, present an opportunity.."
We were with some friends one day and we saw a small yard sign at a stop light that said
Lifestone Church and gave the web address. Janna looked it up on her handy iPhone and it looked interesting. We got home later that evening and I looked at the website again and felt impressed to email the lead pastor, Ben Helton. He invited us to a launch team service that next week. This church was brand new, it had only had a few preview services, and wasn't even fully up and running yet. We hit it off with the staff and felt that the opportunity we were praying for had just presented itself.
I'm so amazed and humbled at the mystery of who God is, and how my upbringing, schooling, career choice, hometown, and ministry are, and were always about His perfect plan for my life. I lay awake at night often thinking about the ministry possibilities and opportunities He has in store for the rest of my life!
Stay tuned.
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“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”-
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